Boonton Line
The Boonton Line was a main line of the Lackawanna Railroad in New Jersey, being built as a freight bypass of its main line, the Morris & Essex Line. The Lackawanna Railroad built the Boonton Line for freight traffic in 1869 to bypass the steep grades on the Morris & Essex Line in the Summit and Millburn area. The low grade freight line split off the M&E main line at the present Denville station, headed east via Boonton, paralleling the Morris Canal into Wayne and east across Garrett Mountain in Paterson. From Paterson, the line cured south into Clifton, crossing the Passaic River into Lyndhurst and then Secaucus (after crossing the Hackensack River), before joining the original main line at West End in Jersey City, about two miles west of Hoboken Terminal. Most through freight on the Lackawanna between North Jersey and points west were routed via the Boonton Line. Though the Boonton Line was intended as a freight main line, there has been always been moderate commuter service on this line. In the early 20th century, the Lackawanna built many new concrete and brick stations along its lines. New stations along the Boonton Line included Mountain Lakes (1912), Boonton (1905), Towaco (1911), Clifton (1925) Passaic (1902), Delawanna (1925), Lyndhurst (1928) and Kingsland (1903). Two new swing bridges were built at the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers in 1901 (the former replaced with a single track lift span named Upper Hack in 1959). By 1925, the entire Boonton Line east of Lincoln Park (near the diamond crossing with the Erie's Greenwood Lake Line) was fully grade separated. In 1963, a major realignment of Erie and Lackawanna trackage in North Jersey took effect. The Boonton line south of Paterson became part of the new "Erie Main Line" (which was relocated from downtown Passaic due to community protests). The Boonton Line between Totowa (Union Boulevard) and Paterson was severed, with Interstate 80 built over the routing. Boonton Line trains were now rerouted onto the Erie's Greenwood Lake Line in Wayne near Mountain View and continued on that line through Montclair and Kearny. The alignment was also intended to allow the Lackawanna's Montclair Branch (an electric commuter branch wired with overhead power in 1930) to connect to the "new" Boonton Line in the future. By the 1970s, freight service on the "realigned" Boonton Line dropped, as Erie Lackawanna (EL) often routed freight via the Erie Main Line to Croxton Yard, instead of the Lackawanna Cutoff. The grades in Montclair were steeper than the old Boonton Line and not as suited to heavy freight. With the Cutoff taken out of service by 1979, all through freight to and from Croxton would be via the Erie Main Line. Commuter service continued, now under the auspices of NJ Transit (and formerly NJDOT). The EL cut Boonton Line service from Washington in Warren County in 1966 to Netcong. The Sussex Branch (to Newton/Branchville) was also discontinued. In October 1994 NJ Transit extended Boonton Line service west to Hackettstown, restoring service to Warren County after 28 years. New GE U34CH diesels and Dieseliner (Comet I) coaches built by Pullman Standard between 1970 and 1973 provided an all new fleet. In late September 2002 the "Montclair Connection" was opened. The Montclair Branch was connected to the Boonton Line and the wire extended to Great Notch. Through electric service to New York (via Newark Broad Street) began along with existing diesel service and electric locals between Montclair and Hoboken. The portion east of Montclair on the old Greenwood Lake line was removed from service, along with three stations. Weekend local shuttle service between Montclair Bay Street and Hoboken began in November 2009. The weekday midday service west of Montclair was dropped in 2010. Commuter service on the remaining portion of the Lackawanna Boonton Line (between Denville and Wayne) is weekday peak direction only. Norfolk Southern (NS) operates local freight along the Boonton Line, as the "H-02". Inbound carloads on H-02 come in via Phillipsburg and Washington to local customers.